I Live To Love You
by TheDingoAteMyGrandma
Summary: What if after Blaine and Andie's date she did go cry to Duckie?


The mixture of sticky sweat and tears beneath Duckies eyes and coating his cheeks was the first thing he noticed as he woke up in the morning, the final remnants of a night spent crying himself to sleep. Wiping them away as best he could he sat up in bed, covering his eyes at the bright light coming through his window and momentarily leaving him without sight. He had a splitting migraine, even worse than that time him and his cousin Leroy had gotten into their grandmothers liquor cabinet. It was all because of Andie- his true love. No matter what anybody told him- and he had heard lots of different things- he knew this to be true. He loved her and he hoped some day she would come to her senses and realize that she loved him too, but the chances of that happening seemed even bleaker after the events of the night prior.

He hated everything about Blane McDonnagh from his stupid yuppie hairstyle to his name which in his opinion was not a name but rather a major appliance. But most of all he hated that he had the affection of Andie, the girl that he himself had been head over heels in love with for as long as he could remember. However what really irritated him was the fact that he knew exactly what she saw in him, he wasn't blind, he knew the guy was _not_ unattractive and he also knew Blane had so much more to offer Andie then he did. With him she had a future; she could get out of _the wrong side of town_, have enough money to support herself and buy her father the nice house he deserved so much. They would have beautiful children together who wouldn't have to know what it was like to be a zoid, the rich kid's nickname for anybody whose parents didn't own an oil well. It made his stomach hurt to think how absolutely selfish he was being in not just giving his best friend his blessing to be with Blane, who was obviously the better choice for her. But he physically couldn't.

Last night he was an asshole, he knew and accepted that, when Andie brought Blane into the club he had lost it. Dice-man never let him inside the club, the only reason he got in last night was because Iona told him she was his mother, but Blane comes strutting along one time and Dice-man rolls out the welcome mat. It was complete and total bullshit, the whole situation was.

Running a hand through his bed ruffled hair he decided it was time to get up and face the day, no matter how much that was going to suck. Getting out of bed he threw on some halfway clean, at least they smelled clean, clothes from his floor, not in the mood to make a big production of putting together an outfit. As he walked into the doorway about to exit his room he stopped for a moment, hand pressed to the door frame and took in a sharp breath. It was Saturday, a day that usually meant time either spent at Andies house or hanging around her work, waiting for her to be finished. If she was busy with homework maybe he would ride his bike past her house a couple of times. But he had promised himself he wouldn't be doing that, and he was resolved in his decision, which left him kind of lost.

'What do people normally do on Saturdays?' he thought to himself, scratching the side of his head.

~~

Slamming his locker shut, louder than was needed, Duckie let his head fall against it- letting out the metallic _whak _of bone against metal. He allowed the sharp bolt of pain to shoot up into the back of his head, the first time in the last three weeks he had really felt something. The pain broke through the zombie-like lull his life had become.

He hadn't spoken to Andie in over three weeks; since the night of her date with Blane. Sure she had tried to call him at least a few times a day, something which made him chuckle a little- thinking how he used to be the one bothering her daily with incessant calls. But nothing had changed on his part, she as far as he could tell was still with Blane and no matter how hard he wished he could just get over that, he couldn't. Letting his head bang against the locker a second time, he jerked his up at the sound of raised voices from a little ways down the hallway. Right by Blanes locker.

"Andie," he whispered turning to see what exactly was going on and whether or not he would have to come help her, he wasn't going to just stand back and let anything happen to her. Blane was leaning against his locker, arms crossed over his chest with a look Duckie couldn't quite distinguish in his eyes. Andie was standing in front of him, her face beat red which he knew from experience happened whenever she got angry.

"Just say it. I wanna hear you say it." She said in a stressed tone, she was trying to hold her composure. Not wanting to make a scene as usual.

"Andie, please, alright?" Blane pleaded, looking around as if to make sure nobody was hearing this exchange.

"I wanna hear you say it." She whispered.

"A month ago I asked somebody else and I forgot."

Quickly she pushed him into his locker, her calm exterior breaking as she began screaming in his face. "You're a liar! You're a filthy, fucking, no-good liar. You don't have the guts to tell me the truth! Just say it!" she yelled, making a tight fist and punching him in the chest.

"I'm not lying." His voice cracked, revealing the frustration he was feeling.

"Tell me!"

"What?"

"Tell me!"

"What do you want to hear?"

She punched his chest again. "Just tell me!"

"What!" he shouted for the first time.

"You're ashamed to be seen with me." He began to protest as she continued. "You're ashamed to go out with me, you're afraid!" she started wailing on him as she yelled, her composure completely gone at this point. "You're terrified that you're god damn rich friends won't approve. Just tell me the truth! Just say it! Just tell me the truth!" she stopped suddenly, backing up a step.

It was dead silent for a moment before he spoke, "You don't understand, that it has nothing at all to do with you." He whispered. Without missing a beat she turned and ran away.

Duckie watched as a tear dripped down Blanes cheek, which he quickly wiped away. "Andie!" he yelled after her, but there was no chance of her coming back. After a moment of staring after Andie, Blane moved from his locker and walked down the stairs, getting out of Duckies line of sight. He wanted to punch the kid in the face more than anything. He was just overwhelmed with anger at not only Blanes behavior but the town they lived in and every single spoiled rich kid inside of it. Fists clenched at his side he was about to just turn around and head to his next class which he was already late for, but then he heard voices come from the stair case. Walking over and looking down he found Blane talking to that asshole Steff he was always with.

"The girl was is and will always be nada." Steff said, looking at Blane with complete disgust. Froze in his place Duckie watched as Blane went away and Steff threw his cigarette on the ground- stepping on it and heading up the stairs right in Duckies direction. As he reached the top Duckie moved away from the stairs, and waited until Steff noticed him there.

"You got a problem friend?" he asked Duckie with a sneer and a condescending tone to his voice. When Duckie didn't say anything in response he turned and began walking away from him. That's when something inside of him snapped. He was fed off with the attitudes and the way the richies looked at them as if they were scum on the bottom of there shoes and he was about done with Blane and everybody he associated with. Andie was a better person than any of them would ever be and it drove him crazy that people like Steff would never see that. Running after him he lunged and tackled him to the ground trying his best to gain control and kick the shit out of him, but eventually he lost it and Steff took over. He punched Duckie in the face a couple times, then pulled him up and slammed him against a locker. This is when Duckie got it together and pushed Steff back onto the floor, punching him back several times.

Teachers from nearby classrooms ran out and broke up the fight, but Duckie was not in the mood to get into trouble for this. Steff deserved all the pain he could dish out to him and more. Moving away from them he ran off down the hallway pulling down one of the stupid banners the prom committee had hung up and running off the same way Andie had.

After his altercation with Steff in the hallway, Duckie had rode his bike straight home and had stayed locked in his room ever since. Periodically his parents would knock on his door ordering him out, but after a while would give up and walk away. No doubt the school had called and he was in serious trouble, but he didn't really care. There was nothing they could do that would making him fell as upset as he was right now, nothing they could take away from him. Prom? He didn't want to go to that stupid thing anyway. Walking privileges at graduation? It's not like he had any immediate plans for after high school, no college would take him and he was way too scrawny to join the army.

He had no clue what time it was, though by the moonlight shining in his window he assumed it was some time after eight o'clock. There was a singular knock on his door and he turned away from it- curling into a ball and closing his eyes tight. After a minute there was another knock. "Go away mom, I'm not hungry and I don't want to talk about it!" He shouted.

"It's me Duckie." Said a soft voice from behind the door which he would recognize anywhere, though it had been a while since he had heard it address him. He stared at his wall for a moment before slowly standing up and opening the door for her, then returning to his post. Closing his eyes he waited until he felt the bed shift and a body lay beside him. "Please talk to me." Andie whispered, laying a hand on his shoulder. He frowned, she either had cried recently or was currently and that wasn't okay with him. Opening his eyes, he sat up and looked at his best friend since childhood. She looked like a mess, her hair was sticking up in certain places and the whites of her eyes were turned red from crying.

"You look awful." He whispered with a wry smile.

She choked out a small laugh before bursting into tears which she immediately tried to wipe away with the top of her hand. Duckie pulled her over to him, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and smoothing down the top of her hair, resting his chin on top of her head. "You were right Duckie; I should have listened to you."

"I wish I wasn't right." He said honestly, even if he had told her that this was going to happen he hated to see her hurting like this. He had also said when she came crying to him he wasn't going to be there, but there was no way he could do that, he loved her way to much.

There was a moment of silence where Andies crying died down and Duckie gently stroked the sides of her hair before she broke the silence. "Why did you fight Steff?"

"Do I really have to have a reason to want to punch that guy?" he said dryly, earning a small smile and laugh from Andie.

"Well no, you don't. But why did you fight him instead of Blane, what did he specifically do at that moment that pissed you off so much?"

Duckie wasn't sure what to say to her, not wanting to hurt her feelings, but he figured the truth was best. "He was just saying a lot of stuff about you to Blane which wasn't remotely true."

There was another second of silence. "Duckie…" she paused. "Why do you like me so much?"

Chuckling humorlessly and shaking his head, he looked down at her. "Do you really have to ask me that?" he asked, honestly surprised by how low her self-esteem was sometimes. "You're the most amazing person I've ever met. You're smart, beautiful, you put up with me."

She chuckled and rolled her eyes. "You really love me, don't you?" Andie asked, looking up and making eye contact with him for the first time.

In an instant he made a decision he hoped he wouldn't regret, shaking his head in disbelief he leaned down and pressed his lips firmly to hers. There was a moment where she didn't respond and it felt like his heart might have broken out of his chest, but then her lips began moving against his. She pulled away from the kiss after a while and looked at him, her eyes widened.

"Andie, I live to love you." He said with a grin, moving a strand of fire engine red hair behind her ear. She looked confused for a second before breaking into a grin herself and throwing her arms around him- pushing him backwards onto the bed.


End file.
